The European Parliament (EP) Thursday passed a resolution strongly condemning “the gruesome, systematic and widespread human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law” committed by the Al-Assad regime in Syria and ISIL militants.
The EP called on the Assad regime to immediately and unconditionally release and drop all charges against activist Mazen Darwish and all those detained, convicted and sentenced for peacefully exercising their right to freedom of expression and association, as well as all human rights defenders and political rights activists.
The EU expressed serious concern at the severe lack of funding for UN appeals in 2014, which has led to the temporary suspension of World Food Program assistance to Syrian refugees, and urged the international community to step up its funding and assistance.
The Assad regime has detained 10,000s of Syrians since the outbreak of the revolution in March 2011, including many human rights activist and academics, including Professor Faten Rajab and Dr. Rania Abbasi along with her husband Abdul Rahman Yasin and their six children. Their fate is still unknown.
Spokesman for the Syrian Coalition Salem al-Meslet calls on the UN Security Council to put pressure on the Assad regime to implement the Un resolution 2139 urging the release of all detainees in Syria. He also calls on as the International Red Cross’s mission to organize visits to detention centers to check on the safety of detainees and report on their status.
Meslet stresses that the file of detainees in Assad’s secret prisons is a top priority for the Syrian Coalition, adding that “we constantly raise the issue of the detainees in all our meetings with Arab, international and UN officials and call upon them to exercise pressure on the Assad regime to release the detainees and alleviate their suffering. “No-one must forget the role of activists who have been detained by Assad’s security forces, and that almost every Syrian person has a brother, a friend or relative who is waiting a bleak fate in Assad’s secret prisons.” (Source: Syrian Coalition + Agencies)
